The government plans to cut betting tax to 10 per cent from the present 25 per cent in a bid to clamp down on illegal practices and enhance tax revenues, officials said yesterday. In 2006, betting tax revenues declined to CYP 4.27 million from CYP 4.59 million in 2005, coming largely from bets on horses and football. Illegal betting is considered to be responsible for the declining revenues.

The Casino Association of South Africa (Casa) called on the Gauteng legislature’s economic affairs committee to take back to the drawing board the National Gambling Amendment Bill, saying it required more research on the nature of taxes that could be charged to institutions operating internet gambling. The roadshow for submissions on the bill is nearing an end and casino licence holders are putting pressure on the provincial legislatures to grant them automatic licences to operate internet gambling.

Katalin Lukacs, general secretary of the Hungarian Gambling Association, has told the industry there that he is confident there will be no tax increase in 2007. "The facts and figures have justified the reasoned analysis and market forecasts of the association," he said. "The legislator and the organisations responsible for the state control of gambling have accepted that another restriction or tax increase could result in the regression of the market. That would in turn seriously risk the USD 227.1 million gaming tax that is almost certain to be paid in 2007," Lukacs added.

Legislative fraction of PRD in the House of Legislators remarked that the approval of the new 20% tax to games and draws will allow the ending of money laundering and the proliferation of such businesses in Mexico. It remarked the importance of the Special Tax on Products and Services (IEPS), which will tax with a 20% fee to bets and draws.

Britain National Lottery operator Camelot is lobbying the Treasury to change the way it is taxed, claiming this would boost prizes and increase contributions to good causes and the London Olympics. Camelot, which last month was awarded the next ten-year Lottery licence beginning in 2009, is urging the government to scrap the current tax of USD 0.24 on every USD 2 ticket. Instead, it is asking to be taxed in the same way as bookmakers, with a tax on gross profits. It wants the rate set at 24%.

Macao (Xinhua) -- The government of the Macao Special Administrative Region has collected 18.36 billion patacas (2.295 billion U.S. dollars) in direct gaming taxes in the first eight months of the year, seeing a notable year-on-year rise of 47.2 percent. The statistics issued Wednesday by the Finance Services Bureau (FSB) showed that the gaming taxes accounted for 73.4 percent of the government total revenue in the period.

Mexican legislators approved in a commission a 20% tax to operators of bets and draws, a duty that could affect the profitability of several games and draws belonging to media company Televisa and entertainment firm CIE. In a press release sent by the House of Legislators, they said that the duty had been proposed as part of the Special Tax on Production and Services (IEPS), included in a tax reform which is being debated in the Congress.

A Finance Ministry proposal to amend Poland's gambling law has raised an outcry among slot-machine operators. The draft seeks to increase taxes levied on slot machine owners and establishments offering gaming services. Industry insiders say this may hinder the growth of the market or even cause it to decline. As a result, they say, gambling may begin to flourish in the off-the-books sector of the economy controlled by the criminal underworld.

The Economy Commission of the House of Legislators agreed on the proposal for the Tax Reform of the federal government in order to add a 20% fee on the performance of bets and draws. The project of the report, ready for approval next week in San Lázaro, indicates that the gambling industry with bets and draws neither brings society the direct and indirect benefits it demands, nor it fully compensates the associated costs.

The country stands to double its tax revenues from gaming over the next five years as three more casinos come to the table — new players likely to add, not take from existing operations. "The possibility exists, all things being equal, that the government could double its tax revenue from casinos with the addition of these new operations," said gaming board secretary Bernard Bonamy. The government already does quite well with the existing four. In 2006, it raked in BSD 14.1 million, through a dual system of taxation.

Spain will give back more than a half million euros in taxes to gaming companies, after the Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional in 1996 the complementary fee of the fiscal tax that was in force since 1990. The government has approved the incorporation of 505,547.53 euros to the Eventuality Funds for this concept. The Constitutional Court understood that the statement was against the legal security principle, which originated the presentation of resources that asked for the return of the payments carried out...

Cape Town - Operators of internet gambling should be subject to similar tax regimes as their land-based counterparts, established gambling operators have argued before a parliamentary committee. Casino Association of South Africa (Casa) chairman Jabu Mabuza told the national assembly's trade and industry committee that his organisation "notes with concern" that the National Gambling Board had recommended that a tax on interactive gambling games be 2 percent of net gambling revenue.